Ofsted should no longer evaluate serious case reviews, finds Munro report

In the report, Munro highlights issues around bureaucracy, stating that the profession needs to focus on protecting children rather than on "regulations, inspections and procedures".

She calls for the development of social work expertise by keeping experienced, more senior social workers on the frontline so they can develop their skills and better supervise more junior social workers.

In addition, she wants to give other professionals — health, police and family support services — easier access to social work advice when they have concerns about abuse and neglect.

It is also suggested that the statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children, should be shortened.

Alongside recommending that Ofsted no longer evaluate serious case reviews (SCRs), Munro calls for a national system of trained reviewers to be considered, so lessons can be learned nationally.

She also recommends scrapping announced inspections of children’s services, replacing them with unannounced only.

These would cover all children’s services and take into account the quality of learning provided by SCRs.

Munro said: "Too often questions are asked if rules and procedures have been met but not whether this has helped children. 

"Everyone in the profession can think of meetings and forms that don’t actually make a child safer.

"While some regulation is needed, we need to reduce it to a small, manageable size. Professionals should be spending more time with children, asking how they feel, whether they understand why the social worker is involved with their family, and finding out what they want to happen."

A spokesman for Ofsted said the opportunity to extend and develop unannounced inspections that cover all children’s services was welcomed.

He added that Ofsted supports the recommendation that serious case review evaluations end.

"While we believe that Ofsted’s work in the evaluation of SCRs has had a positive impact in improving their quality, we agree that these should now end and have been suggesting this ourselves for some time," he said. "Ofsted supports the review’s proposals for how SCRs are likely to be approached in the future to maximise learning and improve practice."

ADCS president Marion Davis said that although more development work to be done on specific recommendations, "the direction of travel should be warmly welcomed by all those involved in child protection".

She added: "Reforms to the workforce, including management and supervision, will require time, resource and strong leadership to implement.

"Directors of children’s services are committed to sustained sector-led improvement, building on the experiences of and innovations in local authorities and on lessons drawn from the reformed inspection and serious case review processes, as we all develop the systems required to support these important changes."

In the next stage of the review, Munro plans to test out how to give frontline social workers greater autonomy so they can better exercise professional judgment.

Education Secretary Michael Gove is considering using his powers to grant five local authorities temporary suspension of certain aspects of statutory guidance.

Social workers in Cumbria, Knowsley, Westminster, Hackney and Gateshead would be able to complete certain assessments and hold child protection conferences within timescales that they think would best meet children’s needs.

The trial would last beyond the period of the Munro Review, and evidence available at the end of the period would be considered by the department when responding to Professor Munro’s final report, due to be submitted in April.